Company | Brown & Williamson, 1979-1983

Brown & Williamson paid its product placement agency $278,000 in retainers from 1979 to 1983 to put its brands in nearly two dozen Hollywood movies.

In addition, over this period the product placement agency billed Brown & Williamson $687,500 to pay off individuals in at least ten film productions. [1]

$70,000 was reportedly paid to at least one film. [2] Sylvester Stallone struck a multi-picture product placement deal for $500,000; Brown & Williamson paid out at least $300,000 on this agreement (additional reference).

In 1983, Brown & Williamson reported to the Federal Trade Commission that it spent a total of $85,000 in the “testimonials and endorsements” category that the FTC then used to monitor product placement.

Despite other problems uncovered in its 1983 product placement audit, Brown & Williamson's follow-up memorandum outlines how the program might be continued: “Where a star actually smokes our brands in a manner clearly visible to viewers and our presence in the movie is more apparent,” for example, the tobacco company considers payments of $100,000-$250,000 per movie.

With RJ Reynolds, Brown & Williamson merged into Reynolds American in 1994. British American Tobacco owns a 42 percent stake in that company, which acquired Lorillard in 2015.